Quote from: Danicek on February 05, 2010, 01:06

By supporting TS (don't we need an abbrev for the new stock?) in masses, we give the higher paying sub agencies clear message that we don't mind lowering our commissions.

Exactly. If there is a lot of grumbling from IS exclusives, it might well be that the 0.25$ on TS goes up for IS exclusives only, according to their canister level. Then IS will, but for the exclusives only, have a SS and FT scheme.
Putting the price as low as the initial level on SS now will give TS a huge profit. So perhaps this is a strategic reserve to please the exclusives later with a canister-based reward. The IS forum will cheer all over praising IS as never before.  

Payments are alreadu higher at TS for IS exclusives. They go until 0,38 dollars. But even so, most exclusives have put there just old non-selling files.

The recent developments at iStock and the irritations at Fotolia have really highlighted for me the fact that three of the "Big Four" are propping each other up and if any one of them should be bought by Getty the other two will suffer a very severe blow indeed.

This week, Getty cut off StockXpert as a source of funds for non-exclusives. That comes just weeks after handsomely boosting the returns for exclusives.

Even before StockXpert's death, it took the sum total of earnings from all the significant micros to balance out - just maybe - iStock's payments. Now it is even less likely that they do (and you can get onto Thinkstock directly from iS if you want to, so the fact you can get there as an independent doesn't matter).

The remaining big three probably each contribute 30% of the non-Istock earnings. It would only need Istock to buy one of those for the equilibrium to shift decisively. If IS boosted its sales by a further 16% or with customers from another major site, then we would end up with a situation where exclusivity would pay twice as much as independence.

Wouldn't that suck every single major contributor into iStock's fold, leaving the remaining sites trying to groom new talent that might simply desert as soon as it got good enough to hit the 500 download level at iS?

It would just take one more acquisition for iStock to restore the monopoly it foolishly let slip five years ago by being too modest with its initial exclusivity offer.

How much would Getty be willing to pay for complete global domination of the microstock market? Was it really so far from the mark when someone said in another thread that Fotolia was preparing to sell out to Getty?

Does my analysis make sense?

Yes, it makes sense. If the last of the so-called "Ten days of Christmas" announcements, back in 2006 (or 2005?) had been a comission raise for exclusives, probably the other sites would have bitten the dust.

Quote from: loop on February 03, 2010, 13:45

It is not an increase of comissions, but of revenue. Prices ara higher, comission is the same.

Understood, but I believe Gostwyck's point is that when Istock raises it's prices contributors get their share, where at Fotolia there has been an increase in revenue, but contributors aren't getting their cut.

ok, that's true.

I would say lack of variety and stock orientation. Property or model releases are not needed/used por evaluation. Even artifacting etc is not important at this stage.

Loop,

 Please read my posts again. Right in the portion that you refer to I said " They own some great imagery that is not on the site yet ". Please don't base your thoughts of the quality of Getty from their first selections to this new collection, they have gobs of great images to add, I believe as they always do, they are testing the waters first.

Thanks,
Jonathan

Yes, I read that, but I also said that what will happen, we will know in the future, not now. Mi opinion is that they won't put first line content on thinkstock. I may be wrong. I have been been wrong in the past and I'll be in the future. But I would bet money on that should I had to bet.

Off topic

Warren M,
I know I should have used a PM but I'm rushing out the door. No time.
Since you've recently started uploading to other sites (besides Fotolia), can I ask you to take a moment and have a look at Deposit Photos?
They're only new but they're offering a very good deal for photographers right now.
Disclaimer - I have no connection with DPhotos and no referral links. No personal financial motive.
Remember the 'Most favorite people in the world'?
This is why I'm doing it, I just think it might be a good idea, and I told Princess already.

Go to the Home page on this forum and click on 'Deposit Photos - affiliate' topic to learn more about it.  
There's a buzz going on and plenty of info and plenty of links to click on and help others.

Actually, this goes for both Warrens. See what you think about it.
Have fun

It seems to be always the same history. When contributors are desperately needed (without contributor there's no
business), site owners are friendly, nice, cool. The pay for uploads, FT also did it.  They are supportive and they asnswer fast the questions and work out problems.  Chad was your friend at the forums. At SS, at the very beggining you could talk as much as you wanted at their forums about competitors sites; when IS launched exclusivity all were good words and appeals to the community spirit to retain contributors. Also on DT. But when there's a enough supply of contributors, things change, canisters are made more difficult, al same places, as FT, comissions decrease, one, two times. It's just businness. If they do it and don't have any consequences besides of some angry posts at the forums, they will do it again in the future. No doubt.

If thinkstock needs better images from istock, it should pay more. More per sub dl, and more for the announced packs, that I understad they will give 20% to authors. If not, as photos.com it will be seen as a kind of Dollar Bin for non-selling photos.
Actually I think they should take the Istock route, and dare to sell subs at a higher rice, offering a better quality.

I just calculated it, I would need about 260 suscription sales to match my last 20 exclusive sales (not counting Vetta, nor EL) at Istock.

I think SS should assume its leadership role at the suscription segment, as Istock does with PAYG, and raise prices and comissions without fear. In the mid long term, that's the only way for them to go on being leaders in that segment. In my opinion.

I think going exclusive or, at least, deleting folders in the sites where photos are way cheaper and way less profitable is the logical move.

Mayvebe they are reacting to a lot odfdeactivations through their database.

When they go to Google, they will find the image and the price reference of exclusive images. With just one price.

If I remember well, you have to pay about 20 or 25 dollars, maybe as bandwith fee, for downloading your whole portfiolio at IS. Ask support.